wired: Report Downplays Echelon Effect
EU Parliament releases a draft report on Echelon eavesdropping:
WASHINGTON—A global surveillance system known as Echelon does exist and has the ability to eavesdrop on telephone calls, faxes and e-mail messages, a European Parliament committee has concluded.In a 250KB draft report, the committee said that Echelon—operated by English-speaking countries including the United States, Canada and Great Britain—is designed for intelligence purposes but that no “substantiated” evidence exists that it has been used to spy on European firms on behalf of American competitors.
While impressive, Echelon is not “nearly as extensive” as news reports have claimed, the 33-member committee concluded, saying the system continues to rely heavily on satellite and radio intercepts and can intercept “only a very limited proportion” of the growing amount of telecommunications traffic that flows through fiber optic and land lines.